Quilting Time

It's been quite a long time since I've had time to sit down at the sewing machine.  However, over the last two weeks, I've made it a priority to finish up some projects that were "in process" for way too long.

I don't remember exactly how long ago (probably a couple of years) I bought fabric when I was back in the states and brought it down here to make a small quilt to hang above the TV in our living room.  I designed it (both color and shape) to coordinate with the pillows on our couch.  I started working on the blocks when I first brought down the fabric, but life got in the way.  I dug out the nine finished blocks and decided today was the day to finish the quilt top.  Sewed the last three blocks this morning and just finished sewing it all together.  The quilting and binding will have to wait for another day.  

All in all, I pleased with it;it will bring some much needed color to our white walls.  Hanging quilts in my preferred way to accessorize and brighten up our home--this will make number five.  

 Quilt top laying out on my dining room table.

Laying over the couch with the pillows.

Working around the rain

It is not the "norm" for us to be home in El Salvador during August.  The past three years we have hurried back to the states after our last mission trip of the summer (first week of August) to visit family for 2-3 weeks before I started school.  This year since I'm not teaching, we're going to visit the kids in California in the middle of September. 

All of that to say we don't know whether the torrential rain we've been having the past 2-3 weeks is normal for August or not.  It really seems more like our normal late September, early October rains.  I have to go outside and cross my back yard to get to the washer and dryer.  Except for towels, sheets and a few other things, most of our clothes line dry in the "normally" bright sun.  This month, I'm having trouble getting laundry done and dry in between the rain storms!  Can't tell you how many times we've had to run outside to get things off the line before they  got soaked.

Jeff and Paula have a team coming in on Monday for a week so please pray that the rains don't impede us from our work.  We will be going to schools in the morning and afternoon so the rain will not cause a big problem, but the late afternoon kid's clubs/family festivals could be impacted.

Took this picture from my dining room so you can see my little back yard.  The arched door in the back wall leads to our washer and dryer.  Both are outside, but under a roof.

Final Missions Conference Service

We wrapped up the mission conference, Export Life, on Sunday morning with a combined Koinonia service at Crown Plaza Hotel.  Hopefully, the impact of the conference will bring fruit for years to come.  Here is a wrap up of the last 3 days from Pastor Julio:

If you were at the missions conference Export Life 2013, Rudy Garrido, guest pastor from Colombia, preached three compelling messages about missions.  In the first, "Why Missions?" (Thursday at Lourdes) he clearly outlined the daunting task that God has given us as a church to bring the world the knowledge of the love of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. On Friday in Miravalle, God showed us, in an unforgettable way from the book of Ephesians, the responsibility we have to grow individually as believers so we can be ready to fulfill the mission God has given us. Personally, not for many years had I heard so strong, so solid and so Biblical an argument in favor of the local church or heard a sermon so strong against  the current tendency for some immature believers to be nothing more than "spiritual tourists."  These "spiritual tourists," move from church to church without committing or without relating and, thus, cause damage to the church because they are not doing their part to edify the body. On Sunday at the hotel, the challenge to our church and to individual members was to start contributing to missions through Faith Promise.   It was an an appeal to rededicate our lives and finances to the missions ministry. The challenge was to commit to seek God's guidance to understand how we can push the kingdom in this area through the local church and the answer to this challenge will happen in the coming days.  This conference has been excellent . . . . now we wait for God to confirm in the heart of each member the way to risk more for missions through MetroAmérica 0-20.

I end with a few pictures of the day . . . . thanks for praying for us!

 Praise team leading us in our them song, "Cuenta Conmigo"

 View of the congregation during Pastor Rudy's preaching.

Guest Pastor Rudy and his wife, Rocio, Pastor Julio and Patty, and Pastor Steve and Pam

Annual Missions Conference

We start our annual missions conference tomorrow night.  The theme this year is "Export Life," which, of course, is encouraging us to take the amazing gospel to the whole world.  Pastor Rudy Garrido will be sharing in the services Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday morning.  His wife, Rocio, will be sharing at the women's breakfast event on Saturday morning.  They are visiting from Bogota, Colombia, where he has been a pastor for many years.  They are dear friends of Pastor Julio and his wife, Patty.

If you've been following the blog for very long, you know that we're "all about missions."  It's something we live everyday here in San Salvador.  Please take a minute to pray for all the missionaries you know!  I can assure you that they need and appreciate your prayers.

God's Miracle for Elizabeth

I just wanted to update everyone on Elizabeth's progress since the kidney transplant surgery on June 28.  It's barely been six weeks, but the doctor's have released her to normal (and not so normal) activity because all of her important "levels" are in the normal range.

I say "not so normal" because Ron and Jane drove her to MU last weekend so she could move in and begin practicing with Marching Mizzou!  I think classes start this week and God answered our prayers (and hers) to be a "normal" college student.  Of course, she still has a lot of medicine to take and regular bloodwork and blood pressure checks, but compared to where she was just 6 weeks ago . . . . . it is God's miracle for Elizabeth.

Here's a picture of our beautiful niece . . . . . thanks for praying her (and my sister, her donor) through this process.

RESIDENCY YEAR 3

We picked up our 3-month cards in June and they were due to expire on September 12.  Immigration suggests that you start calling/dropping by to see if your permanent cards are ready a month out from your expiration date.  So today we stopped by Immigration to let them know we would be leaving the country on September 11 and, as a result, it was important that we got our permanent cards before we left.  Last year we had 3 different "3-month temporary" cards, so we were just trying to put them on notice.  WOW and WOO HOO . . . . our 2013-14 permanent residency cards were ready and waiting for us this afternoon.  

Back to IDEM

We were at IDEM (acronym for Discipleship 2) tonight after spending last week in Costa Rica.  We're so blessed to have Ryan and Keeley Blackstock (missionaries from KCBT) as our leaders.  The IDEM lessons were written by Pastor Steve and Pastor Julio which means that they are awesome.  Of course, they're in Spanish so they're very challenging for us.

We have now spent a year studying, eating, laughing and fellowshipping with the 8 couples in our group.  We have two weeks left in the third session.  This week's lesson was about the tower of Babel; Ryan asked us to focus on what we can learn/apply from Genesis 11.  Amazingly, we can be just as proud and rebellious as those descendants of Noah.  Lord, help us be obedient, not ambitious for our own glory.

Great Week in Costa Rica

It was an amazing week in Costa Rica with teams from Faith Baptist Church, Youngsville, North Carolina, Bridge Church in Fresno, California and Bell Shoals Baptist Church, Bell Shoals, Florida.  As of Thursday night there were over 500 professions of faith!

All of the individuals who made decisions were invited to a reception with the church members this Sunday at 4:00.  Please pray for Pastors Rodolfo and Edwin and the members of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, San Jose, Costa Rica, as they follow-up with each person who made a decision.

Tuesday in Costa Rica

We spent the last two mornings at a school in Tirasses, an area of Costa Rica.  We tried to share at this school when we were here in March, but the day we visited there was a teacher work slowdown so there was no classes.  These high school students were very quiet and receptive during the lesson on violence, the testimony and the sharing of the gospel.  Over the last two days almost 180 students and also several teachers have made professions of faith.

Costa Rica Campaign--August 2013

We arrived in San Jose yesterday afternoon and some of our very favorite "Ticos" picked us up at the airport.  It was so great to see Roger and Natalia and visit with them as they drove us to our hotel.  

The hotel is a new location for us so we scouted out the area this morning and found McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pollo Campero and Pizza Hut.  Guess we won't starve this week. 

The teams from Faith Baptist, Youngsville, North Carolina, and Bell Shoals Baptist Church, Bell Shoals, Florida, made it to the hotel about 2:30.  They had a very short time to check in and grab something to eat before we left the hotel at 3:45.  

It wasn't raining when we got to the campaign location and we were able to put up the inflatable and send out the groups to visit door to door.  However, within 30 minutes it started raining, lightly at first, but then increased until it was really heavy.  We collected all of the gringos about 5:45 and headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow morning we will all worship together . . . teams from the states, the group who came from our church in El Salvador and the members of the church here in Costa Rica.  

Thanks for praying for us this week as we share the gospel in schools each morning and then hold family festivals each evening.

 View from our hotel

 Kids waiting to get on the inflatable

 Teams start visiting door to door

 Inflatable is open and available!

 The line is short--at first!